META-ANALYSIS Executive Functions and Decoding in Children and Adolescents: a Meta-analytic Investigation Teresa M. Ober 1 & Patricia J. Brooks 2,3 & Bruce D. Homer 2 & David Rindskopf 2 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract Previous meta-analyses highlight the role of executive functions (EF), encompassing working memory updating, task-switching, and inhibitory control, in reading compre- hension, but have not established their role in decoding. Decoding is defined as the use of orthographic patterns to access oral pronunciations. According to the dual route model, decoding involves parallel activation of lexical and phonological routes, which places cognitive demands on EF. We used multivariate meta-analyses to examine associations between decoding, assessed via nonword and word reading tasks, and EF across 65 studies involving children and adolescents (162 effect size estimates, 22,806 observations from 10,173 participants, weighted mean age = 8.8 years). Meta-regression analyses examined a broad set of potential moderators of correlational effect size estimates, including variables related to sample characteristics, task features, and study design. Results indicated significant small-to-moderate correlations between EF constructs and decoding tasks (r z ranged from .28 to .34), with little evidence of moderation. The observed associations between EF and decoding skills in children and adolescents appear to be relatively consistent, even when accounting for moderators related to the sample, task, and study design. Keywords Executive functions . Decoding . Working memory . Task-switching . Inhibitory control . Meta-analysis Reading is a cognitively taxing activity requiring knowledge of phonological structures, efficient orthographic conversion of letter sequences into spoken language, retrieval of se- mantic information from long-term memory, and integration of information to construct text representations (Melby-Lervåg and Lervåg 2011). The simple view of reading (SVR; Gough Educational Psychology Review https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-020-09526-0 * Teresa M. Ober tober@nd.edu 1 University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA 2 The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York, NY, USA 3 College of Staten Island, CUNY, New York, NY, USA